Tag Archives: Life

It wasn’t raining, the sun was shinning, the wind was blowing and it felt like a spring afternoon for once. After work I made the short drive to the Whitney Point Reservoir where I normally launch from the north end at Upper Lisle but today I decided to be different and put in on the south end and begin from there.

Today’s adventure would have me exploring the three islands that dot the lake. The largest of the three islands is where I beached and began to check things out. I’d love to know if its possible to camp here. I never noticed any signs on the road in that said “No Camping”, however this is something I’ll have to ask the DEC. Following the shoreline north I would be treated to a chorus of song birds. Several vibrant colored Baltimore Orioles and Cardinals fluttered from tree branch to tree branch teasing me with their beauty. I came upon several fisherman, three kayakers and brief spring shower.

Today was a great day to start the month. I hope we are finally going to have some good weather.

I began shooting slide film around 1990 but most of the images I made at this point were mostly captured on print film, something I regret. I didn’t really begin to convert solely to slide film until early 1992 and have been shooting it ever since. I’ll admit that in 2005 I was intrigued by the digital camera and purchased my first DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera. I enjoyed it and made some great images with it as well. I loved the instant gratification of viewing the picture immediately. I also liked the fact that outside the camera and flash card there was no additional cost of film purchase and processing. I vowed to never shoot another roll of film again.

That vow would only last about 6 months before I found myself lacking in something I craved the most. A tangible asset. I would go on to own more DSLR camera bodies as well as film bodies. I spent several years arguing the film vs. digital argument only to realize that it all boils down to preference and what your goals are. There is room in my camera bag for both film and digital.

Our world moves at the speed of now and that is why I carry a DSLR with me most of the time. News happens at a moments notice!

A passion of mine is to preserve history and I choose to do my preservation through photography. No matter the subject matter or the camera you use every click of the shutter captures a moment in time, a piece of our history and for me that is most important. Over the past 24 years I have been documenting my career mostly on film but I do have several hundred images made with a digital camera. I have also been documenting our family as well which is 90% slide film and 10% digital. Without an actual physical count I’d have to estimate my family slide collection hovers somewhere near 8,000 images of which only half have been filed. I just received another 216 slides the other day from the holidays.

Another reason I still shoot slide film is because of monetary value. Collectors want originals. I’ve sold older slides from my collection on Ebay for some serious amounts of money. As a matter of fact I know people who do it for a living. They buy slide collections and break them up. This is both sad and fascinating as well. I’ve slowly been acquiring slides that I hope to flip in the near future but only time will tell.

Since Kodak has exited the slide film market entirely there are only several choices left in which to buy it. Agfa Photo has recently restarted its slide film business and I’m glad because I love the stuff compared to Fuji’s. Its comes done to personal choice. Also Kodak does not process film anymore and most film (Print) is either processed in house at local photo labs or stores like Walmart or CVS. Slide film processing is only done at a handful of locations around the United States with the most popular being Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas.

Although those yellow Kodak boxes of joy that came in the mail are no longer I still get excited for those Red, White & Blue boxes from Dwayne’s!

Over the past six months I’ve been doing some real soul-searching pertaining to my life and what I want. My soul-searching began not long after finishing the New York City Marathon. I realized all these things I had been drawn into was truly taking me away from my ultimate passion, my family. The very people who have unconditionally loved me, supported me and most of all missed me.

Over the course of this reevaluation I realized that my passion for cycling pretty much wasn’t there anymore. I began to feel it was a major time suck. I also realized that my passion for running was growing two-fold. It was simple, no expensive gear, just a pair of running shoes, shorts and a shirt. I had visions of triathlon’s but who was I kidding. I’ve never really been a swimmer and quite honestly I don’t want to be. At points I felt like I was forcing myself to be something I truly wasn’t.

All of these things have really removed me from my family so to speak. My family has no interest in cycling, running or swimming. However we do share some common passions that were staring me right in the face. We all really enjoy getting out hiking, kayaking and canoeing. My boys who are now thirteen and sixteen really enjoy this and I well, I love to canoe. As a mater of fact my sons and I are planning a 2016 canoe/camping trip along a beautiful section of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. This summer our family will visit Lake George and Lake Placid to canoe, kayak, hike and spend time in a beautiful place. Michael and I will hike our first high peak together.

I truly miss spending time with my wife. We’ve always had a wonderful relationship and have always enjoyed being together. We want to do more traveling together. Nothing exotic, just time spent seeing new places whether right here in our own State or some place else in America. She has always wanted to visit Charleston, South Carolina. In July just the two of us will be flying there to take in the sights, enjoy the food but most importantly spend time together without our referee shirts and red cards.

So with that said I will be hanging up my swim trunks and deflating my bike tires. I will embrace my paddling, whether being by myself on a remote Adirondack pond or paddling with my family on the many beautiful lakes so close to where we live. I will continue to embrace and develop my passion for running but most of all I will make every attempt to nurture my relationship even more with three of the most beautiful human beings.

Flipping through my mental rolodex to the afternoon of February 24th 2012 standing on a scale in my doctors office watching in horror while the nurse continue to slide the weight on the scale higher and higher. The weight kept climbing like the thermometer on a summer afternoon. Two hundred pounds, two hundred and fifty, finally the mercury stopped at three hundred and eight pounds. I was mortified!

Later that afternoon sitting on our couch depressed I made a life altering decision, I was not only going to lose weight but I would get myself into shape at age forty. The very next day I made a drastic change to my diet. I began to walk six miles a day five days a week and slowly things began to change for me. My body started feeling better. The digestive issues I had been having were suddenly gone. I began to have more energy and my walking began to speed up.

Fast forward to an afternoon in late April as I returned from the local store where I had bought some fertilizer for our lawn. After lifting these extremely heavy bags from the car I happened to notice each bag weighed forty five pounds. Stepping back for a moment and standing there in amazement realizing I had lost forty five pounds at this point and lifting those bags of fertilizer really put what had happened to me in perspective.

A week later several friends had begun to push me to run a 5K race. Now I had not run since playing high school lacrosse twenty two years prior. I was resisting all I could but my curiosity would eventually get to me. However we signed up as a family and had planned to walk it. Race day finally arrived and as we got there the half marathoners had begun to come in. The atmosphere was electrifying. I was so excited to be a part of what was going on but really having no clue what was going on. All I knew is that it felt good. As we stood waiting for the gun my wife looks at me and says “You know you want to run”. I politely replied no I’m going to walk, BANG, the gun goes off and the tightly packed crowd of runners begin to take off. My wife looks at me and says again “You know you want to run” and I looked back with a huge smile and I was off. About a mile into it I am feeling great as a gentle pat on my back gets my attention and woooosh, my thirteen year old son goes flying on by. With the finish line in sight and my adrenaline pumping I noticed all those half marathoners clapping and cheering as we crossed the finish line. Wow, what a sense of community I thought. Runners of all skill levels cheering and supporting one another. I was hooked! My first ever 5K race was now complete, finishing in 35:19.

Immediately the next month I signed up for another 5K road race in my former hometown of Kings Park, New York. I finished in 26:38, I was stoked! I shaved over eight minutes off my time from the previous month.

The trend would continue over the next several months. Along the way my healthy diet and continued exercise would lead me to lose a total of one hundred and fifteen pounds by Christmas and launch me into the maintaining phase. I have run several races this year so far but my favorite was this past Sunday. I took part in the Seneca 7. The Seneca 7 is a 77.7 mile relay race around Seneca Lake in New York’s Finger Lakes Region. Consisting of seven person teams with each member running three legs each totaling eleven miles. My first leg (3.2 miles) I happened to PR with a 21:16 time at hand off. I have to tell you I was shocked because the last five tenths of this leg had an elevation gain of one hundred and twenty feet. I was ecstatic to say the least.

Today April 22nd 2013 marks my twenty first anniversary of railroad employment. These twenty one years have flown by. Beginning my career on Metro North Railroad in the magnificent Grand Central Terminal.

Grand Central Terminal

Three years later I would move to Central New York where I have lived since. A brief stop on the Ann Arbor Railroad in Toledo, Ohio but the Southern Tier of New York is where I call home.

Ann Arbor Railroad Toledo, Ohio

As I briefly celebrate this page in the book of life I look back and think to myself how lucky I truly am.